Worst run you've had?

Junk trucks, crooked owner, stupid dispatcher, every run was an adventure. Rule#1-Never turn the truck off unless your in the yard.

 

Was sent to the wrong Dow plant by Dow personal...... even called the office and emailed them about it. They said “do what Dow says”......

So I end up 1200 miles away at the wrong Dow plant ....after 3 hours of phone calls I get sent to the correct plant......

 

But you should get paid for that? Maybe not so bad.

 

I can top that maybe. Let's see...

Aha.

I was sick and out a few days so my tractor is given to another driver to take out. Now this tractor is a 87 COE that is in local flatbed service and is extremely reliable. I know it as well as I know my girlfriend at that time to compare. Anyway.

I get the truck the third day and find that the Alternator voltage was a touch low. Around 12.9-13.1 instead of a nice 14.2 as she is always at 10 minutes after a old tyme air start that cranks her to life in 10 seconds. (No computer other than trip master reader onboard)

She is a little more arthritic than normal. Took 25 miles instead of 15 to loosen up and get moving. Loads a perfect batch going to the Navy Base in Norfolk VA proper. We were there in 5 hours. Unloaded and she quits. Turns out that the alternator had been bad. Once the batteries fed everything in the night and early morning for about 5 hours and change drained enough to kill the fuel pump etc at sunrise that's it you have a dead truck.

So. Off to the shop she was towed. I get a nice Super 8 for the night in town.

I get the truck back a day later. 10ish am. Company says come on back home any way you need to we will get this sorted at payroll. So by dinner Im at Doswell. Come out of dinner and found that no buttons would move the semi and trailer at all. Pretripped the entire airbrake system working forward and this time followed the air compressor feeding pipe. That was cold. Air compressor to me with a pencil on it was dead despite a rolling engine. She had failed the compressor and dumped all her air at dinner rather than doing it at 70+ on 95 rush.

Make the breakdown call. To bunk.

4 AM. Tow truck man finds me. (Not bad hunting Mister... considering the directions)this time with a second cabover on his hook. Drops it yanks mine out dead on it's wheels, feeds it his air and off he went.

I hook and bunk again rest of the morning. Since the logs were interrupted for onduty working etc I go to bed. Late breakfast. Come back out eyeball the second truck. Something rings a bell about this one but not sure.

I pull out of doswell (Petro) and hammer down to gain speed. At 25 I finished the low to high range shift and the front end quit steering. The entire steering column became like water, loose. Nothing attached to it. I threw the jake on and came back onto low and this time she drifted right towards the shoulder. I managed to stop her there. No front end steering.

(*&*^ blew my top. Calmed down and started working on the Petro phone problem when three of my company trucks came and stopped for a look see. They take off with the information for dispatch. I wait.

Next morning. Tow *BAM BAM BAM drops off a long nose freightliner daycab. Ok this monster should get the trick done. This would be about day three or four in this episode in total.

That freightliner day cab nose was a JOY to drive. first 500 Big Kitty papow... snorts and everything that nothing was doing this week. Excellent. Back at yard. In a a real bad temper. It's not good for me to lose temper, it's not good.

Safety man corrals me as i marched to the shop intending to go after the shop boss... and he takes my temper instead. I dont know what happened exactly from him to the shop boss, but there was changes pernamently for both the company and my favor as it were. They said that HR will toss a flat dollar amount in my week, toss 10.00 a hour round the clock for 4 days on top of that and just stick a little more on top for my trouble. Just be back monday am 3 ready for Bedford-Fishertown.

In a brand new CH or CL model 350 day cab.

That particular truck as winter rolled on into ice up there became really reliable for what it was for the schedules we kept with that particular customer who demands a perfect 8 am. Not 8.01 am at 8.02 he starts shooting late drivers. Then finding another company to haul his goods. So I did quite a few of those once we got into a good pattern with it.

The payroll? Not bad that week. The towed cabover was a shop queen that should never have gone out. That was a sin. what with no steering etc. I wonder how the tow man managed to keep it in line all the way there... anyhow... the other tractor was a mess. And the daycab big nose was deemed not for me by the shop boss. he got straightened out pretty fast on that. So all of that was taken care of.

A little simple 250 miles give or take down and back. Took #### near 5 days.

On the reliable COE? Sold.

Dispatchers had fun with me on that one. I pulled in, went into office, one growled. Clean out your truck now.

?

Thinking job was kaput I cleaned it out. They had some laughing on me when I got back in. Wasnt much to it anyway. Excepting permit bag. They said it was sold. That's not welcome. But monday am will be good, they promised. And it was.

 

Yes got paid in full as if it was 2 separate loads ........ but took 20 something hours to unload because they ran the unit off the truck when I did get there..... and I couldn’t stay in the cab had to stay in control room with operators.....

The whole deal sucked money or not......

 

It’s called Murphy’s law, what can go wrong will go wrong. Every trucker should expect something like that to happen to them at least once to twice a year, and if your lucky, it may happen to you three times